Prompt Drabbles
by lemonsdarling
Summary: Various characters and pairings. Current prompt: Sissi - Zombies.
1. SissiYumi, Shopping

"And we're supposed to be bonding, because we're part of the same group now — and that's what groups do, they bond, and I think we should have a girl's day, because, really Yumi, we're outnumbered in this group, Mrs. Einstein doesn't count, she's always got her head in books or graphs of computer batteries or whatever it is she and Jeremie do on that thing, and with William and Herve and Nicholas always—"

"Sissi," Yumi says, feeling a headache begin to throb at her temples. "What's your point?"

"My point _is_," Sissi says, drawing herself up to her full height. "We should have a girl's day out, just you and me."

"You. And me?" Yumi asks. "I'm sorry Sissi, but, spending all day shopping and getting manicures or whatever it is you do isn't really my thing…"

"Oh, live a little, Ishiyama," Sissi snaps. "Pick me up here tomorrow at four in the afternoon. And bring sunglasses."

She tosses her hair over her shoulder and starts to walk away, then pauses and glances back with a surprisingly sweet smile. "Who knows," she adds, "you might actually enjoy yourself."

"In another universe," Yumi mutters under her breath, but she mentally makes a note of the day — she's free tomorrow, she can make it. Who knows, she thinks, maybe Sissi will surprise her after all.


	2. The Group, Snacks

They're stuck in the candy isle. Jeremie only notices he's lost them because the crash is loud enough to tear him from trying to decipher Odd's ridiculously illegible scrawl on the list of things they need. Next time, he thinks, Aelita should be the one to take down the notes — she has impeccable handwriting, all neat and beautiful and totally cute — and oh, right, the crash.

He backtracks two isles and finds it in just about the state of catastrophe he was expecting: more bags of candy on the floor than on the shelves, Ulrich looking guiltily around the corner while Aelita covers her mouth in a barely contained fit of giggles, and an undeniably Odd-shaped head of hair sticking out from somewhere between a bag of Snickers and a pack of fun-sized Airheads.

"Come on, you guys," he says. "Candy wasn't anywhere on the list."

"But Jeremie," Odd cajoles, as Aelita helps him out of the mess, "It's half-off."

It's true, when Jeremie looks up the bright red CLEARANCE EVERYTHING HALF-OFF sign hangs like a beacon above them. Odd's giving his best imitation of what he probably thinks is Kiwi's most persuasive begging face, and Ulrich's grinning from ear to ear, and Aelita has a bag of Gummi Bears clutched to her chest — and, "Oh, fine," Jeremie says, subtracting the cost from their budget in his head. "But make sure you grab something for me."

"Yes!" Odd cheers, punching a fist into the air. "The Unforgettable Movie Night Extravaganza prevails!"

"Odd," Ulrich says. "I thought we told you to _stop calling it that_."


	3. Ulrich, Unexpected Holiday Plans

Ulrich came back right when Odd was about to finally beat the big boss with the terrible haircut. He barely spared him a glance, focused on the game, and it wasn't until five minutes later after a heroic defeat that he looked up.

"Hey, buddy," he said. Ulrich was sprawled in a heap face down on his bed. Kiwi got up and started pulling at the hem of his pants, and Ulrich only waved a hand half-heartedly in the dog's direction. "You look," Odd paused. "How should I say this – like Kiwi after his favorite bone went missing."

Ulrich didn't grace him with a reply, just shoved his face deeper into the pillow. Once Odd was pretty sure that he wasn't suffocating, he leaned back and unpaused his game. He wasn't too worried. When Ulrich was _really_ upset, he'd start pacing back and forth and snapping at Odd's most hilarious comments, or he'd end up out on the soccer field until curfew forced him inside, and one time he got into a growling match with Kiwi that actually had Odd a little worried for his diggity dog.

But this was pretty normal, he thought. Teenage angst and all that.

* * *

In the morning, Ulrich opened up in the bathroom. "My mom called," he said. Odd pulled a face around his toothbrush, then leaned over the sink to spit, but Ulrich continued before he could manage a reply. "She wanted to know if I could stay here over break."

"Hey that's great!" Odd said. "You're always talking about how you'd rather stay here over the holidays, and Aelita could use the company – and even if Aelita goes home with Jeremie, there's always Yumi." He wiggled his eyebrows, grinning.

"Odd," Ulrich warned. "–Anyways, it doesn't matter. She wants me to stay with the Delmases."

"_Sissi_?" Odd exclaimed. "You're going to spend your whole holiday with _Sissi_?"

"Looks like it."

The door opened and Jeremie stepped inside, yawning widely. He took one look at the two of them and frowned. "What's wrong, you guys? You look like someone died. It's not–" he lowered his voice, "it's not XANA, is it?"

"If only we could blame this one on him,'" Ulrich groaned. Odd gargled in sympathy.


	4. Odd, Jokes

Odd thinks they make pretty funny jokes when he tells them, the off-handed comments about all the strange situations he was put in at home, the pranks his sisters would pull on him. Really funny, ha-ha, Odd's probably elaborating on the truth again for the astonishment of the crowd. The more incredulous the story, the more he jokes about it, the less he protests that no, this really _did_ happen. No one would believe him, anyway.

But his parents were lax, and children could be cruel, and no one ever said a Della Robbia wouldn't take a joke too far.


	5. Realizations

He isn't scared until two days later. He's walking down the sidewalk back to Kadic when the car comes careening his way, tires screeching and the driver yelling through his open window. He dives to the side out of reflex — in the end, the car doesn't even come close to hitting the sidewalk, just stalls in the middle of the intersection while a fledgling bird hops along the crosswalk to the other side.

But his heart stuttering in his chest, with burns on both his hands from sliding on concrete, he thinks, a moment of stark clarity: I could have been killed. And then, a second later, heart stuttering once more: I'm afraid to die. And with the noise all around him, cars honking at each other and drivers cussing at the idiocy of the man who caused a jam in traffic for a pigeon, the memory of the past XANA attack breaks into sharp focus.

And for five breathless moments, he's terrified.


	6. Ulrich, Aches

The aches are constant. Sore muscles from running so much, rope burn on both his hands from sliding down to the factory elevator as calluses slowly thicken his skin. Bruises and cuts from pencak silat, soccer practice, XANA attacks with no return to the past. He's lucky, he knows, that he has pencak silat and soccer to blame his injuries on. Not even the nurse questions him.

And then there's the phantoms pains; a broken leg – one he doesn't have anymore, that he _never_ had, not really, if going back in time really erases everything that happened before. A broken arm. The indescribable burning of his lungs as the elevator filled with water. Cold seeping into his bones and making him woozy.

Sometimes he wakes up and for a moment the pain is real again – he almost cries for Odd, because there's something _wrong_, they need to get to the factory, it must be XANA, it's always XANA, he_ knows_ this. But once he sits up, his arm is healed, or the current of electricity has passed, or he's no longer drowning in his narrow bed. Only the memory lingers, and as time passes, there's a new ache in his jaw from clenching his teeth in anticipation each night.

But his skin grows tough and callused, his muscles grow strong and steady, and the ache lessens, just slightly, from time to time.


	7. Ulrich, Kiwi

Ulrich wakes up at five in the morning, the numbers blinking neon green from 5:00 to 5:01 as he glares at the clock, trying to shake off the exhausted headache settling heavy over his temples. For a moment, he thinks he woke up for no reason - then, he notices Kiwi in the corner, staring at him.

"Kiwi," he groans. "You know I can't sleep with you staring at me like that."

He checks to make sure Odd's still asleep - he must be, or else he'd be laughing his head off right now. He think it's so _funny_, the way Kiwi's creepy staring always wakes Ulrich up. "Ugh," Ulrich groans, talking to himself, "no other roommate has to deal with this."

Kiwi barks at him and Ulrich jumps to the floor, waving his hands. "Shh, shh. You're going to wake Odd up." He pauses and scratches the side of his head. "Actually, Odd should wake up, this is all his fault."

Kiwi snorts at him. "Yeah, yeah, I know. He'll be more annoying than you if we wake him up any earlier, he always sleeps until the last possible second." He sits down on the floor, crossing his legs and matching Kiwi's stare. "Maybe I should just let him sleep through all his classes. That'd serve him right." He chuckles. "And he'd make up all the sleep I don't get."

Kiwi settles down on his haunches and crosses his front paws. "Of course, if he misses any more class he'll probably flunk out of school. And Mrs. Hertz will flip." Odd's snoring continues on from his bed. Ulrich shakes his head. "If it wasn't for all the XANA attacks," he says, "I'd probably be a decent student. Not an Einstein like Jeremie, but."

He frowns. "Probably not acceptable enough for my dad, either."

Kiwi's ears perk at his derisive laugh. "Why am I telling you this? You're a dog, you don't worry about this stuff. Besides, you're an annoying dog, and you keep eating my stuff. And peeing on my bed. The next time I wake up to a puddle..."

Odd's snoring suddenly tapers off, as if he can sense a threat to his dog even when he's dead to the world. Ulrich stares at his turned back, and then at Kiwi, who's still staring back at him, head quirked, and sighs once more. "I give up," he says.

He grabs his clothes and towel off the chair, slinging them over his shoulder, and adds, "I'm going to go take a shower. Don't wake Odd up." He pauses. "At least, not until he's going to be late for breakfast."

Kiwi's eyes follow him until he shuts the door, and then the dog happily curls up in a ball, settling in for a couple more hours of sleep to the comforting lull of Odd's snores.

* * *

A/N: Thank you to those of you who reviewed! (: These drabbles have mostly been for my own enjoyment, and to try to get a grasp on the characters since I'd just rewatched all of Code Lyoko as a callback to my childhood days - but getting feedback is always so encouraging, of course!


	8. Aelita, Young

The Hermitage had been her father's new beginning. Aelita hadn't understood it then, not really, and had no idea what the change would mean for the three of them. She wonders now, running a finger across the dusty tomes on the shelf, if her parents had hidden her away here on purpose. She was taught at home, and she had been content to explore the woods out back or make-believe with Mr. Puck around the house. Her parents had been enough. They had guided her with steady hands and comforting explanations of the world and the linear paths, the rules of nature, the logic of science the entire universe answered to. But when Mother was taken from her, suddenly her world was turned upside down, and it not longer fit into the simple explanations they'd given her her whole life. For the first time, she felt _lacking_.

The feeling comes back to her now, standing in her father's musty and aged study, tears prickling at the corner of her eyes. There were small comforts in visiting the Hermitage, but it was also a harsh reminder of everything she had lost. And everything, she realized, that she had never had. Was it really any better to be a real girl in the real world who had never seen life outside her small existence, then it was to have been a virtual girl who was experiencing it all for the first time?

She sits down on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest, and tries to remember what it felt like to be young.


	9. UlrichAelita, Growth

Ulrich's tearing blades of grass in two when Aelita comes up and wraps fingers moist with dirt around his own, uncurling his hand and pressing a plant bulb into his palm. Ulrich looks at it, surprised. "What?"

"Mr. Rouiller said I could plant it." She laughs. "He said I'm always out here digging around, anyway - he just doesn't know it's because of Kiwi." She curls her arms around her knees and smiles. "I just haven't found the perfect place to plant it yet."

"What is it?" he asks, abandoning the last frail sliver of grass to run his fingers over the bulb.

"A daffodil._ Narcissus_."

"Oh." A moment of silence stretches out between them.

"I was thinking," Aelita says. "We could plant it by your tree."

"My tree?" He asks, surprised.

"The one you always go to—" Her cheeks flush, and she rephrases herself, "the one you always come and sit by here in the woods."

_His_ tree. Ulrich replays the words in his head and leans back against the rough bark. There's something about this spot. It's the best location in the whole woods, where the rustling of the leaves and noise of the forest can drown out everything, the stupid things and the awful things and the last phone call he got from home. "It's a good spot," he admits.

She scoots next to him, leaning against his shoulder and gazing up at the skyline breaking through the trees to their right. "The sunshine hits here," she says. "It looked different when — when we lived here."

He fidgets with the bulb in his hands, unsure what to reply. He still forgets, sometimes, that Aelita is also _that_ Aelita, Franz Hopper's daughter, that she lived in these woods. He doesn't... how is he supposed to talk to her about these things?

She laughs, a little sadly, and Ulrich stares down at the top of her pink hair. "We can plant it there," he says, awkwardly, wanting to cheer her up. "Where it'd get the most sunlight. Plants need that to grow, don't they?"

She raises her head and smiles at him. "I'd like that." Then, with a mischievous grin spreading across her face, she adds, "but if you tear up my daffodils like you did to that poor grass, I'll never speak to you again."

He looks in surprise at the pile of shredded grass next to him; he'd barely even noticed what he was doing. "Okay," he says, getting to his feet and offering her his free hand. "Promise."

She grabs onto him and pulls herself up, brushing off her dress. "It's a good spot," she repeats, and closes her hand over his holding the bulb. The heat of the sunlight is warming his shoulders, and the touch of her fingers against his spreads the same warmth down through his arm.

"A good spot," he agrees. One where new things can grow.


	10. OddSissi, Questionable Art

(written for a birthday gift; Odd and Sissi are 17 or 18, in their last year of secondary schooling here)

* * *

"Odd," she says, when she clicks off the screensaver on her laptop. "What is _that_?"

Her boyfriend has his head smashed into her pillow; his typical state of unmovable laziness after class, but he rolls over and blinks bleary eyes in her direction. Sissi points at the screen. He gets up and drapes himself over her shoulder, follows her finger and replies, completely nonchalantly, "Drawing references."

"Drawing references for _what_, exactly?"

He wiggles his eyebrows at her. She smacks him on the shoulder. He responds with an overly dramatic shout and she sticks her tongue out at him. "You're so cruel, dearest."

"Shut up Della Robbia," she snaps. He obliges by collapsing against her, gravity rolling him down until his head is in her lap, his knees on the floor. "Ugh," he groans, wrapping his hands around her waist, "Why do they make us go to class every day? I think even my stomach is sore from all that math."

"Your stomach is sore from all those disgusting leftovers you shoveled in it." She gives up on getting an explanation; with Odd, as much as she loathes to admit it, there's some things you just never understand.

The door swings open and Aelita calls, "Odd? Jeremie and I have been look— Oh." She looks at Sissi, to the screen, then back to Sissi, then down to Odd, and her face starts to color. "I'll just! Come back later! Thanks!"

Odd snorts, still refusing to move. Sissi pokes him in the back of the head and frowns. "If your cousin spreads weird rumors about me, Odd…"

"But Sissi," he mock protests, then raises his head and pulls her from the chair down to the floor with him. "What rumors would she have to spread! You, a principal's daughter, the very—"

She shuts him up with a kiss. "Idiot," she says. He just winks.


	11. UlrichOdd, Goodbyes

When Ulrich got back from practice, his side of the room was a Kiwi-shaped mess, and his roommate was sitting on his bed with something in his hands. Ulrich had frowned and shut the door hard in frustration, holding out his hand. Odd had given the diary back to him and said, simply, "I'm sorry."

Now, when they're lying in bed and Ulrich is going through soccer drills in his head, he misses a goal and thinks instead about his diary, newly decorated with teeth marks and sticky with Kiwi's spit. He'd thrown it under his bed after wiping it off on Odd's pillow. But Odd had looked guilty, quietly, the kind of guilty that he never looked over Kiwi's antics.

Ulrich sits up in his bed. "Odd?" he says.

"Keep them, I don't want your anchovies, I'll just take this croissant instead…" Odd mumbles.

"Odd," Ulrich says, louder. He throws his pillow at Odd's head and Odd sits up in a flash, his hands poised to attack. "It's me," Ulrich adds, and Odd slumps back onto his pillow and moans, "Aw, come on, why did you wake me up? I was dreaming." He throws the pillow back at Ulrich.

"Did you read my diary?"

Odd stills, and then turns his head toward Ulrich, frowning. "Yes," he admits, hesitantly, after a beat.

"Which part?" Everything in Ulrich's head feels like it's slowed down, like the moment before a return to the past when the world imperceptibly shifts and he knows his next moment will be in a different place in a different time. His muscles tense in anticipation.

"Your…" There's a carefulness to Odd's tone. "Your letter."

Ulrich makes himself lie down, in a series of thought-out, controlled movements. "The one for your parents," Odd continues, softly. "If you —if XANA…"

If I die, Ulrich thinks. The one I wrote to them to tell them not to miss me, if I die. He doesn't even feel like yelling at Odd, he realizes suddenly, he just feels tired. Really tired.

He can hear Odd shifting from his side of the room. "I worry about Kiwi," he admits, voice still soft. "He goes nuts when I just leave for class in the morning. If I was gone…"

The thought hits Ulrich so hard that for a moment he feels like his heart is going to explode, his chest squeezing tightly and painfully as he struggles for air. He starts to cough as air rushes back into his lungs, and Odd calls, a note of panic in his voice, "Hey! Ulrich! Ulrich!"

"I'm okay," Ulrich coughs out, but Odd's already there with his hands on his shoulders, looking at him in concern. His face burns with a sudden rush of embarrassment and he tries to brush Odd off; Odd just drops his hands and crawls over Ulrich's feet to lean against the wall behind his bed.

"I'm sorry I read your diary," he says. "That was a seriously uncool thing for me to do, good buddy."

"It was," Ulrich says, trying to hide how shaken he still feels in the annoyance. "And would you mind getting up? Your feet stink."

"Hey!" Odd protests, then shoves a foot in the direction of Ulrich's nose. "I would have you know that cream has been working wonders on my feet!"

Ulrich pretends to gag, holding his nose. "You're going to need an entire miracle for those."

Odd puts on his best mock-offended face, and Ulrich laughs. He tucks his hands behind his head and looks up at the ceiling, and then says, "hey, Odd. I'd… you know I'd look after Kiwi for you, right?"

Odd hums in agreement. "I know, good buddy." A pause. "I'd tell your parents," he gestures vaguely, "you know. Whatever."

"Thanks." Ulrich closes his eyes. "Give them the letter."

Odd doesn't reply, but after a few minutes Ulrich feels his weight shift off the bed. He opens his eyes and watches Odd slip back under his own covers, hands curling around his pillow, his face mashed into the fabric. It doesn't take too long before he starts to snore. Ulrich laughs to himself, and shuts his eyes again as the exhaustion comes rushing back.

It's okay, he thinks, we're all going to live. We always survive. The letter was a stupid thing to write.

It's hours later when he finally slips off into an uneasy sleep.


	12. OddYumi, Drinking

Yumi is fantasizing about dumping Odd at the factory. He's dragging along behind her, rambling about heels, how this feels like when he was virtualized in her body on Lyoko (and it still weirds her out, when she thinks about it, that Odd lived a day in _her_ body) and she's thinking about how even though they don't use the factory anymore, it's still an abandoned building. But right in the middle of the thought, the mental image of trying to get Odd down the sewers like this flashes through her mind and ruins it.

It was just a fantasy anyway.

He jostles her shoulder and she winces. "Hey, Odd, quit it!"

"Yu_mi_," he cajoles, dragging out the second syllable. "Have I ever told you how ravishing you look in the moonlight? Simply stunning!"

"Odd," she warns.

He frowns, pausing on the sidewalk to steady himself with a hand on her shoulder. "I forgot," he says, "that you're immune to the great Della Robbia charm."

"You are so much more obnoxious when you've been drinking," she replies, and pushes him forward again. "The sooner we get you home, the better."

"Sure, sure," he says, and warning bells go off in her head as he takes a deep breath.

"–If you start singing I'll dump you on the side of the road."

"Yumi." His shoulders slump in defeat. "You're no fun."

"Why were you even drinking in the first place? I thought you were just going to check out the 'super cool techno fresh music scene,'" she quotes. There's a dip in the sidewalk and she puts out a hand to catch Odd if he stumbles.

"I saw someone I thought I'd never see again. Like a ghost." He bursts into laughter. "Hey remember that time I pretended to be a ghost and terrified Sissi? That was great. You should've seen the look on her face."

Impressive attention span, she thinks wryly. "You saw someone?"

"Sam," he says, simply.

"Oh," she replies. She's not sure what else to say. Her and Odd aren't really the bonding over exes type.

"She looked–" he frowns, "she looked good."

They're at the corner, and he sits down on the curb. Yumi sits down next to him and hugs her arms to her chest, shivering at the bite in the air. She should have brought a jacket, but the thought didn't even have time to cross her mind when she had gotten Odd's text. And then Ulrich's, saying he couldn't pick him up and would she please find him, Odd couldn't afford to get in trouble again.

Odd still looks small, curling into himself on the curb, even though he's finally catching up with her in height. She puts a hand on his back and says, "sometimes I think relationships are more complicated than they're worth."

Odd leans into her side and, for once, doesn't make a silly joke in reply. They sit in silence and watch the streetlight change from red to green, and eventually Yumi says, "Come on, I'm supposed to get you home."

He smiles at her, one of those honest smiles that makes warmth spread through her, and she pushes him gently. "Let's go."

"You really do look radiant in the moonlight."

"Quit it, Odd."


	13. OddUlrich, Injuries and Danger

(This takes place post-series/post-XANA.)

* * *

"Hey, come on," he protests. "It's just a scratch."

Ulrich pulls the first aid kit out from under his bed. Odd has no idea how he has the thing — and he's pretty sure Ulrich's been stealing supplies from the nurse, which is both hilarious and a little insulting, considering he wasn't invited. "Buddy," he says, more firmly. "I'm fine."

Ulrich replies, "I don't know what to do with you, Odd. Are you _trying_ to get yourself killed?"

"I was just skateboarding!"

"Yeah, and last week, you were _just_ going to see how many stairs you could jump at once, and the week before you were _just_ trying out new stunts, and the week before—"

"Okay, okay," Odd holds his hands up in defeat. "Sorry, mom."

Ulrich glares at him and he snickers, which earns him an extra dab of rubbing alcohol in the cut. "Hey!" he winces, but Ulrich just gives him a_serves you right_ look and finishes cleaning out the cuts, reaching for the bandages afterward. Odd looks down at his own shins and notices, for the first time since he fell, that his skin is already blooming with the beginning of nasty bruises. He winces again.

"I'm serious," Ulrich says, quieter. "You act like you have a death wish, idiot."

Odd shrugs. He's not sure, really, but he doesn't think it matters. He's just been bored. He was pretty sure Ulrich understood that, but he's been getting more and more paranoid every time Odd gets a little banged up — it's starting to bum him out. "Ulrich, haven't you heard?" he says, with a grin. "Youth is invincible."

Ulrich mutters something under his breath and stands up, brushing the wrinkles out of his cargo pants. He pushes the first aid kit back under the bed with his foot, and Odd hops up, bending his knee to stretch out the bandage. "What?" he asks.

"You should know better," Ulrich says.

For a moment, Odd feels uncomfortable, but then he grins again. "We're heroes," he says, repeating old words of Ulrich's. "Invincible — the good guys always win."

"But there aren't bad guys anymore," Ulrich says, voice pitching in frustration. "So why are you still—"

"I'm having fun," Odd replies. "Just, stop taking it so seriously, okay? I'm just having a good time."

Ulrich stares at him, worry or frustration darkening his face, and the expression makes Odd feel like squirming in his shoes. "I'm going to dinner," he says, forcing a cheerful tone, "You can never be too early when there's food around! I know there's going to be something extra good tonight!"

At the door, he pauses, and looks back at Ulrich. His legs are starting to ache, and his elbow feels tender where it brushes up against the fabric of his jacket, but Odd can pretty much ignore it all if he tries. He's had worse. "Thanks," he says, carefully, "You're a good friend."

Ulrich just scratches the back of his head and says, "Friends look out for each other."

Odd smiles. "Always have, good buddy."


	14. JeremieAelita, Thanks

(Takes place at the beginning of the fourth season.)

* * *

She sneaks up to his room late that night, tiptoeing in her socks through the darkened dorms. At his door, she knocks quietly, knowing he'll still be up. It only takes a moment before he opens the door, his pajamas wrinkled and his hair mussed, eyebags more pronounced then ever behind his glasses. "Hi, Jeremie," she whispers.

"Aelita!" he exclaims, and then clears his throat and quickly lowers his voice, "What if Jim—"

"It's okay. Jim always sleeps heaviest on Wednesdays, I don't know why, but Odd seemed pretty sure…"

"Odd would know," he grumbles, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "Uh, come in," he adds, opening the door wider for her. Aelita slips inside and curls up on his bed, tucking her feet underneath the covers. The computer screen illuminates the room in a low blue glow, and Jeremie returns to his chair, clicking away at a few screens until he pulls up a few lines of new code.

"What are you working on?" She asks, curiously.

"The equipment and outfit modifications " he says. "I keep having trouble getting the perimeters right for the new objects, I can't figure out what's wrong. Everything _looks_ right…"

"You'll figure it out soon," she reassures him, and settles down with her chin on her knees to watch him work. Jeremie stares at her for a moment, completely intent, and she feels heat rise in her cheeks. "Jeremie?"

"—nothing!" He replies, blushing and quickly turning back to the computer. He mumbles the rest of an explanation, but she only catches the last few words, "-ngs to program for you."

Jeremie, she knows, can do just about anything with enough time, and even the mistakes he makes are only pitfalls meant to be overcome. The amount of time he spends on working to protect them from XANA, trying to save the world, trying to free William, trying to save her father… everything he's done for _her_; it's more than she ever could ask of anyone, and she'll always be grateful.

If there's anyone her father would have wanted to entrust his life's work too, she knows, it would be Jeremie. She wants to tell him as much, but when she refocuses on him, he's completely lost in concentration, his shoulders hunched toward the screen and his hands flying over the keyboard. She smiles.

One day soon, she thinks, trying to ignore the small ache of sadness the thought brings, we'll find my father and he'll be able to thank Jeremie himself. Until then, I'll be here. "Thank you, Jeremie," she says softly.

He glances over and says, "huh, what?" She shakes her head.

"Just thinking." She closes her eyes, smiling as the soothing noise of his fingers against the keyboard resumes.


	15. Odd, Taste

Warning for graphic violence and resulting injures (as XANA attacks go) in this chapter.

* * *

Odd tastes blood in his mouth, the sharp metallic tang distracting him for a second too long and suddenly he's on the ground, elbow hitting sharp against the concrete. He winces at the crack and rolls to the side out of instinct, barely dodging the scrap of metal thrown his way.

"Hey, XANA," he coughs out, "that all you got? I'm less then impres—" He dodges to the side, cradling his elbow to his chest. It's probably broken, he thinks, but the blood against his tongue still catches his attention more. Weird.

The electrician is literally sparking, electricity flowing through his fingers and — crap, Odd thinks, this is not good. He can't fight so well with a broken arm, and he's cornered in the sewers, his back to the wall.

A sharp yell rings out through the corridor, and the electrician staggers, image flickering until Odd can see the shadow of Yumi behind him. "Odd!" she shouts, and he grins weakly, giving a thumbs up with his good hand. "You're really becoming a master of 'just in the nick of time'," he comments.

"I don't think this is quite over yet." Her voice lowers in grim resignation as the man gets to his feet, turning to assess her. Odd breathes through his nose, three short breaths, trying to force his legs to cooperate. He staggers to his feet only to have Yumi's back collide with him, the force of the man's throw sending them both into the wall. He cries out at the new jolt of pain, but Yumi's okay, his body cushioned her fall.

"Call Jeremie," she says through gritted teeth, dropping her phone onto his lap and resuming a defensive stance. His own cell phone is ruined in three feet of sewer water, and he dials quickly. "Jeremie?" he asks.

"Odd! What are you-"

"Jeremie, tell the others they need to hurry. I think I broke something and Yumi's not going to last against this guy much longer." He winces as Yumi crashes to the ground again.

He can hear Jeremie yelling over the computer to Aelita and Ulrich in that frantic tone he always uses when things start getting rough. Odd smiles, because, trust those two to get the job done. Ulrich probably took out a whole fleet of monsters by himself already; he'll rub his new hit count in Odd's face tomorrow. If only, Odd thinks with a rush of jealousy, he could be on Lyoko right now.

A garbled shout draws his attention back, and he drops the phone. The man has Yumi pinned against the wall, hands around her throat as she struggles and Odd gathers all his energy, adrenaline rushing through his body. He rushes at the man, ready to throw himself at him, but XANA calculates his movement and grabs him by the shirt, sending him flying across the room. His head connects with the wall and he falls, not even registering the pain, just watching helplessly as everything fades away.

"—Odd!" Yumi is saying, shaking him by the shoulders. "Odd, wake up!" He feels sluggish, half-asleep, can't remember what day it is and has no idea why Yumi would be in his dorm at this time of night, it's still dark outside— she's talking, her words blurring together, he can't make out what she's saying and—

It's twelve hours earlier and he's trying to sneak Kiwi back inside before Jim gets up to do his daily patrol of the dorm floors. "Kiwi, be quiet," he whispers, and remembers that last time he almost got caught at the top of the stairs, so he turns and heads the other direction. His head aches faintly, like waking up too early on not enough sleep, and he has to bend his elbow a few times before it stops feeling so stiff.

Kiwi sniffles in his bag, and Odd says, "We did it again, my diggity-dog." But even as the phantom pains start to fade, he can't shake the sharp taste of blood on his tongue.


	16. UlrichJeremie, Routine

"Jeremie," Ulrich says. And then louder, when that clearly doesn't work, since Jeremie is still drooling on his keyboard, "hey, Jeremie, you're going to be late for gym. I know how it's your favorite class..."

He gets a mumble and a swatted hand in reply as Jeremie comes to life. Ulrich grins, amused, because it's the same routine with Jeremie every time - face lifted a couple inches off the keyboard, he readjusts his glasses, then blinks blearily at Ulrich from behind the frames before saying something short and dry. This time, it's "oh, it's you." A pause as he checks the time.

"We should get going soon if we still want to make it in time," Ulrich adds helpfully. He leans back to stretch his shoulders and frowns in the direction of Jeremie's bed. "Hey, how late did you stay up last night? I don't think you've slept in your bed once the whole week."

"Yeah, well," Jeremie hums, walking over to his closet to pull out a fresh shirt. "I'm in the middle of something very important, I can't waste any time."

"Yeah, those unimportant things like eating and sleeping, no time for those," Ulrich replies, voice teasing. Jeremie gives him a _this is serious, Ulrich_ look before pulling his shirt over his head. "Actually, you're right," he says, "I don't have time."

Ulrich shakes his head. Jeremie ignores him and adds, "Where's Odd, anyway?"

"Probably in the middle of eating your breakfast," Ulrich says. "I left to come here when you didn't show up."

"Great." Jeremie digs in the closet again and then glances at Ulrich, sweatpants in hand. Ulrich obediently turns around, staring at the poster of Einstein on Jeremie's wall. "Hey." He hesitates, scratching the back of his head. "Do you think you could help me with the homework Mrs. Meyer assigned? I tried to work on it last night, but between Jim's surprise lecture and Odd playing Kung-Fu Commando, I couldn't concentrate."

"Sure," Jeremie says. He sounds surprised, but when he moves past Ulrich to pick up his bag, he gives him a big smile. "We can go to the library first thing after gym."

"Great," Ulrich says, grinning in reply. Jeremie grabs his laptop and stows it inside his bag. He follows Ulrich out the door and sighs, taking one last longing look at his room, and says the same thing he always does.

"Let's just hope it's going to be a quiet day."

Ulrich laughs.


	17. AelitaWilliam, Afterwards

Takes place pre-Evolution. Written for the prompt 'William - Afterwards' from Nijibrush. (Hope you don't mind that I added in Aelita!)

* * *

[HELP] he texts her, the single word bringing her phone to life, the vibration waking her up in the darkness of the night.

[whats wrong?] he sends back, quickly, but she knows. She felt it, too, but she had done her best to ignore it. It wasn't the first nightmare she'd had, anyway.

The pillow feels hot against her cheek as she rests her head, exhausted and still hazy with sleep, waiting for his reply. It comes a few seconds later, the phone's screen lighting up beneath her fingertips. [again] the text reads.

She dials his number and presses the phone to her ear. "William?"

"Aelita," he says, and his voice is hoarse.

"It's okay," she says, quietly. "I felt it, too."

"I'm standing on Lyoko and my body starts," the frustration rises in his voice, angry and helpless, "_he_ starts controlling my body. and I know… I know I won't be able to beat him."

She thinks about the nightmare, the way she could feel the pulse of the activated tower throughout her whole body — how the sensation still lingers in her mind now. And how William, with the sign of XANA blazed into his image, had been standing in her way. "And you want to destroy me."

"Not— not me," he says in shame.

Neither of them say anything. She curls up on her bed and sighs.

"XANA's gone, isn't he?" he asks.

"Yes," she replies, putting all the conviction she can into the word. XANA is gone. XANA _has_ to be gone. They gave up — her father gave up too much for it to be anything but true.

"Just a dream." He laughs. "A _nightmare_, more like."

She huffs out a laugh in response, suddenly feeling an overwhelming rush of exhaustion. "William? I'm sorry, but I need to get more sleep."

"Oh yeah," he says. "Thanks, Aelita." An edge creeps into his tone as he adds, "You're the only one who understands."

"Of course, William. Good night," she replies, and puts down the phone. She stares as the light of the screen dims and eventually turns out, and then curls her hand around her pillow, reaching her other arm out to pull Mister Puck closer. "It's just a dream," she whispers.

When she closes her eyes, she can still feel the pulse of a tower beneath her feet.


	18. OddAelita, Fuzzy Sweaters

Requested by an anon on tumblr; apparently when I'm writing on four hours of sleep it gets shamelessly fluffy.

* * *

When the colors of the sunset are just starting to shift the room from a soft orange to a deep purple, Aelita hears footsteps along the hallway. After a moment, Odd sits down next to her, and the warmth of his arm around her is a sharp contrast to the cold seeping through her legs. "Hey," he says, and his eyes are soft when she looks at him. "Everyone's going to be looking for you soon."

"I just." She sighs. "I wanted a little time to myself."

He gives a light shrug in response and drops his bag to the floor. "I brought you a gift." With a flourish, he pulls out a package wrapped in garishly bright yellow wrapping paper. "Odd…"

"Don't worry, my sisters send me a gag gift every year to tease me." His grin turns wicked and he adds, "but they didn't know that this year I'd actually have someone I could give it to!"

He hands the package to her and she places it in her lap, feeling more than a little wary as she carefully undoes the wrapping paper. You never can know with Odd. But when she peels away the last of the paper, there's a pale pink sweater left in her lap with twin pom-poms on each of the sleeves. The fabric feels wonderfully soft and fuzzy against her fingers as she strokes it.

Odd pulls back and grins at her as she holds it up to her chest. "Looks pretty good, huh?" he exclaims.

"Odd!" She cries, clutching the gift. "Thank you!"

He bumps his shoulder against hers and leans in with conspiratorial grin. "You're really part of the family now, Princess."

The thought warms her more than a sweater ever could.


	19. WilliamOdd, Stylish

(written as a request for WillOdd from rebellious-loner on tumblr)

* * *

Odd's fingers are wrapped around the edges of William's jacket collar, pulling him in close as his lips widen into a small, private grin. William's hand slips underneath his shirt and suddenly he pauses, his hand trapped between two layers. "How many shirts do you wear?"

Odd frowns at him, impatient. "A few," he says, with an airy wave of his hand, the other still tugging William close, "you might not know this William, but it's stylish."

"And even with all those layers you're still scrawny," William replies, poking Odd's stomach to prove his point. He sounds impressed.

"I'm _not _scrawny, I'm—!" William ruins the protest by closing the distance between them with a cheerful kiss.

Odd bites his lip in relation.


	20. UlrichWilliam, Jealousy

His fist stalls a centimeter from the wall, perfect control, sweat dripping down his forehead and stinging his eyes as he holds the pose and swears under his breath. Damn it, Ulrich thinks, his body practically vibrating with the force of his anger as he tries to swallow it back down. Two more labored breaths and he releases the pose, his muscles relaxing as he stands up straight. His chest still feels tight, every breath ballooning painfully against his ribs, and he gives up in frustration. After two steps in the direction of the dormitory, he changes his mind and heads for the woods.

Ulrich fights invisible demons the entire walk, ducking away from the road and yelling at the crows that stop in the trees above him to call insults down at his head. He wants peace and quiet, for once, and if he can't get it in the woods he's not going to get it anywhere else. Not with Odd as a roommate, and even with Yumi giving him the cold shoulder all day, her silence is anything but peaceful. And to top it all off, Milly and Tamiya have been trailing him the entire day with their sixth sense for gossip.

Ulrich groans, tipping his head back against the tree trunk. His life is a mess.

There's a rustle from the trees to his right and Ulrich springs to his feet, instantly on alert. "Ulrich?" A familiar voice says, in surprise. "Oh— I thought no one else would be out at this hour."

It's William. He has the decency to look at least a little uncomfortable at intruding on Ulrich's secret spot, but Ulrich glares at him anyway. William is the last person he wants to see right now. "What are you doing here?"

William frowns. "I should be asking you that. What are you doing out here, anyway? I think Yumi was looking for you."

Ulrich shrugs. "Like you would care," he says, under his breath.

"Okay." William replies with an edge to his voice. "I know what your problem is, Stern, but this," he gestures between them, "is getting really old, really fast."

"Yeah, well," Ulrich says. He pulls at a blade of grass and doesn't look at William. "Why don't you just leave me alone."

"Look, I get it, you don't like me."

And Ulrich has this one moment where he wants to tell him he _doesn't_ get it — that it's much more than that. It's the fact that William is so cool and effortless, that he gets to do bad in school and his parents probably don't care, and he's this rebel that everyone wants to know and everyone keeps talking about, and all Ulrich has is a soccer team that might be disbanded and his crappy grades. And a friend who he thinks he's probably, maybe, a little in love with, but he doesn't even come up to her forehead. Unlike William. William, tall and cool, who always measures up better than him.

The only place Ulrich's a hero is in a secret world that doesn't matter _here_. And if William joins the Lyoko warriors, like the others have suggested now that they're getting so swamped with school and fighting XANA, he won't even have that on him anymore.

He's jealous, but not just of William around Yumi.

"Forget it," he mutters, standing up. William doesn't follow him as he storms out of the clearing.

"You're going to have to face me some day, Stern!"

"Yeah, I know," Ulrich says, under his breath. He rubs at the corner of his eye in frustration and keeps walking. But not today.


	21. Yumi, Me and Myself

As requested by yum1ishiyama on tumblr.

* * *

"So." Yumi says, carefully, floating next to her in limbo. She watches the other girl out of the corner of her eye. "How are things in …the future?"

She responds with a shrug, punching futilely at the blank screen of a phone she pulled out of her capris and — this is weird, this is really weird, Yumi thinks. And then, a second later, dammit, why am _I_ always the one who gets stuck in these messes?

"Why am I the one who always gets stuck in these messes?" Other Yumi says, disgruntled.

"I know!" Yumi bursts out, overcoming the weirdness of the situation in favor of her frustration. "Why is it always me?"

Other Yumi huffs. "Wait until you get stuck in the digital sea _again_—"

"Forget about Lyoko, Hiroki keeps breaking into my room—"

"Did you know he knows how to pick locks, the little brat—"

"Not to mention William's still following me—"

"Yesterday, XANA possessed my entire class. Again."

"The whole thing is so stupid!"

"I can't wait for this to be _finished_!" They declare in unison.

Sharing a smile with herself, Yumi stops wondering for a moment how long it'll take Jeremie to fix this mess and thinks: for once, _someone _understands.


	22. YumiUlrich, Odd Bedfellows

This takes place, obviously, during the body!swap episode of A Fine Mess. Requested by not-so-hot-for-heroes on tumblr. (also, I posted this chapter and the chapter before it simultaneously, so make sure to check them both out! (: )

* * *

Ulrich makes a quick excuse to go back to the showers again — this time, with his change of clothes in hand — and she doesn't point out that his reason doesn't make any sense. She already feels uncomfortable heat rising in her cheeks, and he doesn't make any eye contact with her before fleeing down the hall to change.

Alone in Odd and Ulrich's room, she frowns and flexes her hands. It's the weirdest thing, being in Odd's body, because her mind keeps telling her it's her own — it's not until she looks down and the proportions are all wrong and her clothes are garishly bright and purple that she remembers. She sits up and picks up one of Odd's shoes by the very tips of her fingers, holding her nose with the other hand as she drops it to the floor. The other shoe soon follows. Satisfied, with the bed suddenly more livable, she leans back against the wall and waits for Ulrich to return.

He comes back and drops his day clothes into a neat pile on his chair. "Odd's pajamas are in the bottom drawer, if you wanna—" She shakes her head. "After his shoes? I'd rather not take my chances."

He laughs, and sits down across from her. There's a moment of uncomfortable silence before he says, "So— um. Good night, Yumi." He gives her a sweet, small smile, and she tries to ignore the tinge of heat rising in her cheeks again. Ulrich watches her for a moment and then quickly looks away, and turns off the light.

It takes a few minutes for her eyes to adjust to the dark, and by the time she can see him again Ulrich's lying with his back turned away from her, an arm curled around his pillow. Yumi's pretty sure she won't be able to sleep much tonight, she's never done well with sleeping anywhere other than her own bed, and the poster on the wall and Kiwi's sleepy sighs keep reminding her of what's wrong. She looks down at her — his — hands again and frowns.

Ulrich's breathing finally evens out about half an hour later, just when she gets a cramp in her side from sitting in an awkward position so long and finally decides to lie down. She tugs the blanket close to her head and looks across the way at him. He's shifted at some point, and now his face is just across from her, his expression still and somber, even as he sleeps.

It makes her uncomfortable, watching him, because it seems like something private she shouldn't see — she's not sure she would want him, or anyone, watching her while she slept, while she wasn't conscious of what they might see. He clutches his pillow tighter and mumbles something under his breath — and she pulls away, forcing herself to turn around. Tomorrow, she reassures herself, tomorrow this will all be sorted out and I'll be back in my own body again.

She falls asleep to the measured breathing of the boy across the room.


	23. YumiOdd, Pranks

As (sort of) requested by birdface94 on tumblr!

* * *

"There you are!" Odd flops down next to her on the couch, a big grin already plastered on his face. "Yumi, my favorite friend, the most selfless person I know—"

"No." She says. He opens his mouth and she raises an eyebrow, looking up from her book. "I don't know what you're going to beg for, but the answer is no."

"But, Yumi," his voice rises in a whine. She frowns down at the text in front of her, doing her best to ignore him. But Odd, not to be outdone, gets on his knees in front of her and clasps his hands together in a not-so-silent plea. The headache starting in her temples suddenly comes on extra fast.

"Please! You know I wouldn't turn to you unless…" He pauses. "Unless…"

"Unless I was your last resort?" She shakes her head. "That kind of ruins your earlier compliment, Odd."

"You're even worse than Ulrich," he replies, flopping to the floor and staring up at her. "What's a guy got to do to get a little help from his friends?"

She grins down at him. "If Ulrich rejected you, I'm definitely not going to say yes—" she holds up a hand as he pushes himself up on his elbows, "—and I _really_ don't want to know what it is."

He shrugs. "Just a harmless prank." A pause, and then his face lights up with a smile she knows all too well, and he propels himself off the floor. "You're brilliant, Yumi!" he exclaims, running for the door.

"What?" She already has a bad feeling about this.

"I have to go find your brother!" he says, happily, on his way out. She stares blankly at the door as the thought of her brother and Odd as cohorts flashes across her mind. "I am never going to get a day's peace," she declares to the empty room, and groans.


	24. OddUlrich, Hostage

(Written for SeeMeInTheShadows. Her prompt was a hostage situation with Ulrich unable to help because he's on the outside, so warning for the content.)

* * *

"It's okay," Odd says, trying to keep his voice from echoing into the hallway. Sharp pain crisscrosses through his chest when he breathes in, the force of it making him bite back a moan. Ulrich, the secret sap, is panicking on the other end of the phone — his words stay steady but Odd can hear it in his tone, in the way he speeds up the end of his sentence and starts reassuring Odd.

What a mess, Odd thinks, starting to feel woozy. He grins into the phone.

"—We'll get you out of there," Ulrich says. "We'll get — Yumi and Aelita are already on Lyoko, it'll—"

Odd tunes out, blinking against the stars in his vision. "Thanks, good buddy," he says, and there's a noise from the end of the room. Ulrich's questioning him about what's happening, but he ignores it. "Gotta go," he says, tone cheerful, and the phone call ends with a click.


	25. AelitaJeremie, Nightmare

(Written for sassyschaeffer on tumblr. Takes place after the episode Distant Memory.)

* * *

The nightmare sends her spiraling back into consciousness, the line between dreams and reality still blurring as she scrambles for something to cling to. Her fingers land on the soft fabric of a pajama shirt, and she tugs at the sleeve. Jeremie comes to life with a bleary "—what?"

"Jeremie." she whispers. Her voice catches in her throat and she swallows, rubbing her face as she feels the hot splash of tears against her cheek. Jeremie gropes in the darkness for his glasses out of habit, reaching for his desk, but he isn't in his dorm room and his glasses are still on his face. He pulls them off and cleans them with his shirt, then puts them back on and frowns at Aelita through the lenses. "Aelita? —Aelita!" Suddenly he sits up straight, voice flustered, and backs up to the other edge of the couch.

She rubs at her face again, and he pauses. "Oh! Aelita — is, is everything all right? It's not—"

"A nightmare." She says, and then laughs, the sound rough even to her own ears. "The same one. It's not big deal, Jeremie. I just… panicked a little before I woke up completely."

He looks at her and shifts his weight, hesitating, before he looks away to turn on the lamp beside the couch. His laptop sits on the coffee table, and Jeremie pulls it into his lap, opening the lid and clicking through his habitual checks. Aelita rubs at her temples, trying to escape the last of the forest and the fear in her head, grounding herself by looking around Jeremie's parents' living room.

They must have dozed off, she realizes, in the middle of the movie they'd been watching. But the TV screen is silent now, and the room is only illuminated by the glow of Jeremie's laptop and the small lamp, so Jeremie's parents must have come through on their way upstairs — she blushes. Jeremie's parents had made their approval of her very clear during the couple days she'd been here, and their frequent fond hinting at their son's affection for her keeps leaving her a strange mix of flustered, flattered and embarrassed.

Jeremie, oblivious to her thoughts, closes his laptop — clearly satisfied that XANA isn't up to anything new. Despite how sure he'd sounded about XANA not attacking again while they were on holiday, he's kept all his programs running, and he checks the news often for any sign of trouble. With XANA still silently hanging over their heads, the break still didn't feel as much like a break as Aelita thought it should. She sighs. Maybe this wasn't a good idea.

"Tomorrow, Aelita, my dad planned for us to—"

She looks away from Jeremie, shutting him out as the guilt rises up in her chest. She clenches her hands into fists, frustrated and angry at herself.

"Aelita?"

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. If XANA attacks, and I'm here… Who knows what damage he could do before we'd be able to get to the factory." She shakes her head. "I'm so glad to be here with you and your family, Jeremie, but I shouldn't have accepted, it's _my_ responsibility to stop XANA, I—"

"Aelita." Jeremie reaches out to grab her hand, his palm timid but warm against hers. "We took extra precautions, I have all the alerts in place, we know XANA's patterns. You deserve a break. and …I-I like you here. This is the best vacation I've ever had, because, you're here with me."

She looks at him and the earnest look on his face, and the rush of affection she feels is almost enough to drown out her guilt. She wants to be here, with him and his family, in this house full of love — but. Jeremie's grip on her hand tightens. "Don't worry," he says. "We have it covered. I thought of everything."

"Okay," she smiles carefully. "I won't worry. But, I'm getting tired, Jeremie. I think I should go to bed." She squeezes his hand one last time and then slips off the couch, padding silently up the stairs. When she turns and looks down at him from the landing, he's already making the couch into his makeshift bed. He waves a good night to her, grinning widely, and she smiles and mouths 'good night' back before going to wash her face in the bathroom down the hall.

But she still can't shake the sense of unease, and it lingers heavy against her chest as she lies in bed in Jeremie's room and stares at the ceiling. She thinks about her father, and the illusion of her life XANA had trapped her in just days ago. The tears come, unbidden, again.

When she finally falls asleep, she dreams about her mother.


	26. OddEveryone, Kisses

Ulrich kisses the same way he does everything, headstrong and hesitant, mouth responsive but his body held taut like he's afraid to reach out and touch — afraid of his own want. William kisses with reckless ferocity, half-drunk at the time and full of wandering, searching, desperate hands, his pulse thumping strong and fast beneath his skin. Aelita kisses with sweet and heady mischief, catching him by surprise at his own game with a smile on her lips, mouth sour like the candies they'd been eating. Yumi kisses with force and surety, shutting Odd up in the middle of a goading remark, her hands heavy on his shoulders, fingers digging in to keep him still. And Jeremie kisses with caution, like he knows he hasn't mastered this yet, but he wraps one hand in Odd's shirt to pull him close as the tap of his fingers count time in fractions.


	27. Sissi, Relief

She should have seen it coming.

Three years late to the realization and she still feels like being dramatic about it, setting ablaze a funeral pyre made out of the notes, letters, photos and concert tickets she's collected; something grand to purge the last of the memories. Ulrich, _dear_, she thinks - and it only stings a little bit - belongs to a different time in her life. The time with the secrets, the ones she's half-convinced now she'd just imagined, and the desperation, the torment at the hands of a group she wanted nothing more than to be a part of. She'd loved him, with all the furious devotion of a teenage girl with nothing else to latch onto. She's not sure if she still does.

They were friends, once. But those are children's memories, lost between the years of growing up and growing apart, lost between her mother leaving and her friends following suit, lost before they even finished grade school. The fire crackles and she stares at it, feeling solemn and indignant and lonely and — relieved. She frowns, caught on the last emotion, watching a Subdigitals ticket stub curl in on itself as the fire burns through it. But even as the hurt stays fresh in her chest, she feels a final relief at the end of all of this: the hoping, the nauseous weight of _maybe — someday — if i can just make you love me—_  
_  
_And there in the clearing, holding a funeral for the last of her hope, Sissi breaks down and sobs with relief.


	28. Yumi, Digital Sea

Yumi has a premonition.

She's pretty sure those were supposed to be Odd's thing, but maybe there's been a mix-up in the codes for their powers, or maybe this is just the sort of thing that happens before you're faced with your own death. Because that's what it is, isn't it? Torn into a thousand pieces, scattered across the network, she'd be dead in all the ways that matter, never to return home again.

She's in the middle of fighting a Krab and she just _knows_, suddenly. She _knows_, and she's not even scared in that moment, just resigned, because hasn't everything been leading up to this? Hasn't she cheated this fate one too many times? She always knew the fight against XANA wasn't without sacrifice, and she always knew none of them were immortal, and she always knew she had a target on her back that grew by the day.

Her seventeenth birthday is in two weeks. Hiroki teased her yesterday about it, saying she already acts like an old lady, and her parents had laughed along fondly, but she had felt it in her bones. She feels like she's stretched too thin, too old in a body far too young for the weight of the world on her shoulders, and the thought hits her hard: she's only sixteen. she's only—

And then Jeremie's calling for her to focus, and Odd's just been devirtualized, and her fans are slicing through the air, and the digital sea is just a cliff away. Get the job done, she tells herself, teeth clenched. Just get the job done, and the force of the blow to her side doesn't even make her flinch.


	29. William, Apologies

He punches the wall and it doesn't fight back, rips the easel from its feet and throws it with a clatter to the floor, tears his posters down and only gets through two before he — comes to his senses and pauses, breathing hard, hands shaking as he sinks to his knees. He feels out of control, he _is_ out of control, and it scares him with all the force of a memory:

—mind screaming at him to stop it, stop this, stop, arms moving of their own free will, smirk pulled across his features that he can feel tearing through his muscles, it isn't his, this rage and arrogance and power it can't be his why does it feel like—

and he slams a fist against the floor and flinches at the reverberation, only unclenches his fingers after he can feel them start to go numb. "I'm sorry," he says, and it's just a declaration to an empty room, it doesn't matter, but — it's not like they'd listen to him anyway. It's not like anyone would listen to him, if he walked up to them and told them, "I was trapped in a virtual world under the control of a psychopath computer virus that wanted to kill everyone who might have mattered to me."

He's completely alone.

In the wreckage of the room, a room that doesn't even feel like his anymore, full of relics from a past life he returned to unprepared and unaided, he cries of his own free will, a litany of apologies falling from his tongue.


	30. UlrichOdd, Summer

(for Soul Jelly, who requested these two with the prompt 'summer,' however it ended up being more about the changes of the new school year.)

* * *

Ulrich's already settled back into Kadic's routine, eager to get away from his family as quickly as possible, by the time Odd shows up at the school's front gate. He's staring blankly at the buildings, carry-on bag and suitcase in tow, and when he doesn't hear the greeting Ulrich calls from across the way Ulrich heads over to the gate.

His hair is shorter, and Ulrich opens his mouth to tease him about finally using up all the gel in France when he realizes that Odd's still staring off into space, his hand trailing across his luggage like he's sure he's forgotten something. "Odd—," Ulrich says, and when Odd looks up his face breaks into a smile a second too late — and the missing piece finally slips into place as Ulrich realizes there's no Kiwi barking up a storm of greetings from his bag.

"Come on," Ulrich says, without pausing to think, and picks up Odd's other suitcase from the sidewalk. He wraps an arm around his shoulders. "You have to see what Sissi did with her hair while you were gone."

Mischief lights up in Odd's eyes and for a second he looks like his old self, even with the new haircut and the toned down outfit he's wearing. Ulrich thinks maybe he's in mourning; it seems like something Odd would do. But he doesn't ask, just shoulders his bag and keeps on talking until Odd's laughing and complaining about how Ulrich's grown too tall, and doesn't comment that night when Odd quietly shuts Kiwi's drawer for the final time.


	31. YumiAelita, Ice Cream

Prompt fill for sigur-roskolnikov and fukuro-mind on tumblr.

* * *

Yumi takes Aelita for ice cream on the first truly hot day of the season, a day when the sun is strong enough to make her black tanktop feel stifling as sweat trickles down into the crook of her elbow. Aelita's better dressed in a pale pink dress that twirls as she turns around, the top scoop of ice cream teetering precariously on her ice cream cone as she beams at Yumi. "Thank you, Yumi," she says, and Yumi smiles back and wipes her forehead, replying, "We were due for a girls' day out, just the two of us, anyway."

Aelita nods in agreement and turns her attention back the treat. She'd ordered a scoop of cherry vanilla and a scoop of mint, unable to choose, and the ice cream's melting faster than she can keep up with it. There's a splash of mint dripping down the inside of her wrist and she licks it off, a quick flick of tongue against skin, and Yumi tries to pretend she isn't watching. It's just Aelita, after all, but then Aelita flicks her tongue out again to catch another drop and Yumi can feel her cheeks heating up.

Heatstroke, she decides, embarrassed. The sun is getting to her — maybe she really should think about changing her wardrobe, the summer is always miserable, her mother would probably be happy — Aelita's hand closes warm around her arm and Yumi's torn from her thoughts. "Yumi?" Aelita frowns, confused. "You were about to walk off the curb."

Yumi glances down and shakes her head, trying to get it clear, and then says quickly, "Sorry—we should probably be getting back." She looks back to the busy streets and adds, "So you have plenty of time before curfew…" Aelita's hand drops away from her arm and then she's hooking her arm through Yumi's, smiling up at her and saying. "This was really nice, Yumi. I always like spending time with you."

It's just the sun, Yumi reminds herself, as the blush returns, burning hot against her skin.


	32. Sissi, Zombies

written for a request by yuml on tumblr. (warning for zombie apocalypses, blood, and briefly referenced violence)

* * *

If there was anything Sissi knew more than enough about, it was the dramatic plots of supernatural TV shows (and soap operas, of course). But hauntings, people being possessed by spirits of ancient civilizations, zombie apocalypses — she had a theory for every one of them and more than enough imagination to back those theories up.

So when the zombies first showed up on the streets outside Kadic Academy, **she** wasn't surprised. She was properly terrified, of course (it's a zombie apocalypse, you're _supposed _to be terrified), but she still turned around to tell Herve, all condescending pride, I _told_ you so. He was _always_ going on about how these things were completely impossible, "there's no scientific proof that anyone could ever end up being a— a zombie, Sissi—" and really, she thought, it'd serve him right if he got bitten.

But halfway through that first day, standing in the cafeteria with Milly clutching the back of her shirt and half a dozen zombies trying to break down the door, one already smashed to bits on the floor and her baton clutched in her hands, the last of her satisfaction in being right had drained out of her. Milly was crying, and Sissi snapped, "don't be such a baby, we're going to be fine," and glanced at the back door — their only chance for escaping — then down at her shoes. They were the newest style, completely in fashion, and she'd had to cajole her father out of four months allowance in order to buy them.

They were terrible for running in. She kicked them off, leaving them abandoned on the floor as she squared her shoulders and gave one last look at the crowd of zombies pushing against the door.

It didn't matter really, she thought, they were covered in blood anyway.


End file.
